1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving support device, a driving support method and a computer program for compensating for lack of visibility in a of blind spot of the driver of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, along with the popularization of navigation systems, there has been an increasing use of vehicle image display systems for displaying circumstances around the periphery of a vehicle on interior display devices. For example, positions of other vehicles, obstacles, road markings such as a center line and a stop line, and the like might be displayed.
Here, an area on the periphery of the vehicle which a driver cannot view is the so-called blind spot region. For example, regions to the rear of a vehicle, in the direction of a front pillar, under a front bumper, and the like, are among the blind spot regions of the vehicle. Usually, it is difficult for a driver to view such a blind spot region, which delays or prevents recognition of pedestrians or obstacles close to the vehicle. Accordingly, in order to assist the driver, views of these blind spot regions are captured by an imaging device such as a camera on the vehicle and displayed on a display device mounted in the vehicle interior while the vehicle is traveling or stopped.
For instance, a technique for capturing images of areas, including blind spots created by pillars which support a ceiling of a vehicle, using cameras set on door mirrors, correcting the data for the captured images based on coordinates of a driver's eye, coordinates of the pillars, coordinates of the cameras and direction of the optical axis of the camera, and displaying the corrected image on each of the pillars, using a projector, is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2005-184225 (pages 8 to 11, FIG. 6).